


Saving the World Because Everyone Else Seems to Be Busy

by OnAWhim



Series: Avengers By Association [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ashes Scene in Avengers: Infinity War Part 1, Aunt May is worried, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, MJ is Awesome, Ned is Awesome, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Relationships can be read that way but it's not the focus of the story, The snap has implications for the rest of the world
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-05-13 13:44:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14749976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnAWhim/pseuds/OnAWhim
Summary: What happens after the dusting?Spoilers if you haven't seen Infinity War. (What are you doing reading fanfics? Go watch it!)Follow along with the epic adventures of Ned and MJ as they try to figure out what to do now that half the world has vanished. Who will they turn to for help? Where will their connection to the Spider Man guy from youtube lead them?





	1. A Not-So-Secret Identity

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of a collection of stories which will be interwoven in sequels, but they should also read okay as stand alone works if that’s what you’re looking for. There are four stories (coming soon) in the first stage of this collection, so I highly encourage you to check out the rest. :) 
> 
> This is my first time trying to write something like this, so I welcome any and all feedback. Also, comments make my day, so drop a line.

MJ: Have you seen Peter recently?

Ned: No

MJ: His aunt just called me looking for him. He didn’t turn up after our field trip.

Ned: She called me too. 

MJ: I think I’m right about something and I think you know what it is.

Ned: ???

MJ: You know where Peter is.

Ned: I wish I did.

MJ: He said something to you just before the aliens showed up.

Ned: We were talking about my legos. 

MJ: …

Ned: We were talking about his internship.

MJ: The Stark internship that doesn’t seem to exist on SI’s website

Ned: So you know

MJ: I strongly suspect

Ned: He made me promise not to tell anyone.

MJ: Is he in Wakanda then?

Ned: I didn’t hear anything from him since he left the bus. Haven’t seen him on any footage from Wakanda, but that doesn’t mean anything. I’m going to keep watching.

MJ: You’re going to have to tell Aunt May soon. She’s calling everyone.

Ned: I’ll guess I should call her now.

Ned closed out of the text conversation. He’d have to tell Peter his secret was out, at least a little bit. He hoped Peter would forgive him for telling his aunt. But this wasn’t just neighborhood villainy. Besides, Tony Stark was missing and that’s who Peter worked for. 

Swallowing, he called May. 

“Ned? Have you heard from him?”

 

“No, but May, I need to tell you something kind of important and you might freak out.”

“Is this about Peter?”

“Yes.”

“Well?”

“He left the MoMA field trip to help the Avengers.”

“I was wondering if you knew.”

“You know?!”

“Peter isn’t as stealthy as he’d like to think.” 

“I’m so sorry, May.”

“He’d better get home soon. I’ve been trying to get through to Stark Industries for hours.”

“I’m sure he’s with the Avengers.”

“That’s not really comforting.”

“I’ll call if I hear anything.”

“Thanks, Ned.”

He had barely hung up the call when he got another text from MJ. 

MJ: Ned, are you there?

Ned: Yeah. What’s up?

He could hear more sirens in the distance. And some car alarms. Actually, now that he stopped to listen, people were screaming. He opened up the news on his phone. Something was definitely wrong, but the headline hadn’t quite gotten around to explaining it. The live newscasts showed cars and planes crashing across the world. 

Ned: I just saw outside. What’s happening? You ok?

He waited. His parents were at work. He should call them. Busy signal.  
He switched to messenger. Hoping the internet would give better connection than text. Unfortunately his parents didn’t use anything but their phones.

Ned: MJ?????

MJ: You’re still here. Good.

Ned: Do you know what’s going on?

MJ: People just disappeared. The news anchors vanished. Some intern is doing her best now. I guess it happened kind of everywhere. Cars crashing. Planes without pilots. Kids abandoned on the street. Your family ok?

Ned: I don’t know. They’re at work and the phones are down. You?

MJ: They’re gone. My mom was home and I just checked the store down the street. My dad isn’t there. 

Ned: Where are you?

MJ: Outside my dad’s work. It’s a mess out here. You should stay inside. 

Ned: You can come here if you want. 

MJ: Can I bring some kids with me? They were abandoned in the street. Everyone else is busy trying to find people or deal with all the car crashes. 

Ned: Yeah, see you in a few. 

Ned ran to the pantry, trying to see what kind of food he could give the kids MJ was bringing. He got out a notebook and an old digital camera. They would want name tags and to try to find any other relatives for them to stay with. 

~~~~~~~~~

MJ supposed that she must be the kind of person who steps up to take control of things in a crisis. It was something she wasn’t sure she wanted to know about herself. There were adults running to various buildings to check on family. Some people were trying to pull passengers from a wrecked car. She could only imagine the other catastrophes happening throughout the city. This was probably mild in comparison. 

Still other people grabbed what they could from the now-empty convenience store on the corner. On the sidewalk outside the store, next to the line of shopping carts, was a baby carriage with some spilled grocery bags scattered about. There weren’t many children in the street. Most were at home, probably. Still a few children simply stood on sidewalks, looking around as if lost. A boy, probably only ten or eleven years old, was crying.

She grabbed some fruit from the corner store, gave it to the kids and asked them if they knew where they lived. The ones that didn’t she invited to come with her to Ned’s.

As she led the younger children down the street, she was struck again by the sheer amount of chaos that must be unfolding around the world. She was sure there’d be people working to figure out who disappeared and why, but she wasn’t sure that anyone was prepared for a disaster on this scale. She thought of hospitals losing part of their staff. Police forces missing officers. Government officials disappearing from their offices. So many new orphans. And she was one of them. 

She led the kids up the steps to Ned’s apartment and knocked on the door. She ushered the kids inside and asked, “Any word from your parents yet?”

“No,” he said, showing the kids to the couch where there were some oreos on a plate. 

“So do you have experience babysitting?” MJ set her bag down on the counter.

Ned shook his head. 

She smiled a bitter smile to herself and said, “Well, let’s get started then.”


	2. Unhappy Happy

Ned asked each of the kids for any information they new about themselves and their families. He had made a spreadsheet with anything the kids remembered, where they had been found, and their photos. 

MJ had put on cartoons on Netflix to distract the kids, then stepped in to the kitchen. 

Carrying his laptop, Ned walked into the kitchen. “MJ, I got all the info on the kids. Maybe we can send it in to the police station.”

“Yeah, great idea.” She said, not quite meeting his gaze. 

“Do you want to call since you found them?”

“Yeah, let me grab my phone.” She pulled it from her bag on the counter and dialed the number. Busy signal. Of course. She sighed.

“We can try again later.” Ned offered in encouragement.

“They’re going to be understaffed and dealing with a million other things even if the phone lines do come back up.” She paused and considered. “We need to do this ourselves.”

“We could print some posters to put up around the neighborhood at school.”

“There’s too many of them.”

“There’s only five kids.”

She corrected him. “There’s only five kids in this apartment. There must be millions.”

“Hey, let’s focus on these five.”

“Peter had to have a way to talk to Stark, right?”

“I think he texted someone. Not Stark exactly though.”

“Did he have his phone with him?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, well did he ever back up his phone on his computer?”

“I don’t know.” 

“We’ve got to check.”

“Why? The phones are even working!”

“They’re not working yet, you mean. Besides something tells me that Stark’s employees might be reachable despite current circumstances.”

“Even so, we can’t just leave the kids here. And I have to wait here in case my parents come back.” 

“Ok, so you wait here. I’ll go to Peter’s and pick up some supplies for these kids. We’re going to need baby food and stuff.”

“You’re going out there?”

MJ raised an eyebrow in response. 

“Ok, fine, your plan makes sense.”

“Great. Got a frying pan I can borrow?”

Ned nodded and MJ grabbed a small frying pan hanging from a hook by the stove. She took the book out of her satchel and used the space for her improvisational self defense tool. 

She walked over to the couch. The kids were still watching tv. 

She cleared her throat. “Uh, I’m going out to get you all snacks. I’ll be back soon. Listen to Ned in the meantime and tell him if you need something.”

The small girl, Ashley, spoke up, “Miss MJ, what happened to my mommy?”

“Well… the aliens did a magic trick. But the Avengers are going to find everyone who disappeared. Don’t worry.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

The little girl didn’t look pleased, but at least she turned her attention back to the cartoons. 

MJ walked back downstairs and onto the street. It was less crowded now, but there were still people rushing about. She could smell smoke from somewhere. There were still sirens screaming through the afternoon air, but they sounded further away. Storefronts were smashed open. She walked through the broken glass of the sliding door of the supermarket, grabbed a reusable grocery bag from one of the registers and set off to find what she needed. Baby supplies were first, then fruits, rice, mac and cheese, and some candy. Hey, if it was the end of the world, who was she to tell kids to eat their vegetables? 

She would have grabbed some canned goods or water, but she didn’t want to carry those across town or risk dealing with the other looters in those aisle. 

They didn’t look like they would hurt her, but everyone was scared. Scared people did scarier things. She’d do her best to avoid any confrontation. 

She took the quieter streets to get to Peter’s. She had only been over to his apartment a couple of times, and always with Ned or other academic decathlon teammates. It felt strange to walk into this too quiet building. There were lights on in windows from the upper floors, though, so it wasn’t empty. 

The door was locked and there was no answer when she knocked. Had May disappeared, too, or was she just out trying to find Peter? Either way, she needed to get in. She pulled out her pocket knife and forced open the door. She got to Peter’s room and found his laptop. It would take some digging, but maybe if she was lucky, he’d plugged his phone in to charge sometime after getting the Stark ‘internship.’ 

There. Device history. She found an archived version of his contacts. But who was she looking for? Nothing to do but google the names of anyone she didn’t recognize. It wasn’t long before she found a result matching Happy Hogan for someone who worked at Stark Industries. She copied down the number and stashed Peter’s computer in a drawer. 

The smoky smell from before had returned, this time seemingly closer. In the hall it was even stronger and she saw why. Smoke was siphoning out from the gap under the door of an apartment down the hall. She supposed its occupant must have had the stove on before the big poof. 

Nothing to do. She pulled the fire alarm on her way out and left. 

Shaking slightly, she pulled out her phone and dialed Happy Hogan. 

“Hello? Who is this? How did you get this number?”

“Is this Happy Hogan? I’m MJ. I’m a friend of Peter’s.”

“Peter isn’t around. I’ve got to go.”

“No! Wait! You’re the first person I’ve been able to get a hold of.” 

“I’m sorry, but there are bigger things to worry about here than-“

“Hey! My friend and I are watching five kids and we need to find their families and find out what’s going on with our own.”

“We’ve got problems of our own here.” 

“Just, can we, I don’t know, get a Stark Industries server to set up a database for all these people to figure out who poofed? Or some iron man suits to act as a temporary police force? No one down here knows what’s happening.”

“If it’s any consolation, none of us up here knows what’s happening, either.”

Then, before she could say another word, the line went dead. Happy had ended the call. 

They were on their own.


	3. Stubbornness is a Useful Trait

Being on their own wasn’t working so well. She and Ned had found a parent of one of the kids, but that left them with four still to take care of. They were all tired and things in the city didn’t seem to be getting better fast enough. The tv programs insisted that work was underway to fix things, but they weren’t even releasing a list of who in the government was still around. 

And that was how, at dawn a mere three days after the dusting, MJ found herself joining the protesters outside of Stark Tower. Perhaps more surprisingly was that she wasn’t actually there to protest. Instead of a sign reading “Stark Disappeared Before the Dust” or “Where is SI now?”, hers quite simply said, “I know Peter.”

She shook off the questions other people asked about her unique choice of signage. She did learn by talking to the others that there had been no sign of movement beyond the changing shifts of a security guard who sat at a desk inside. The protesters hadn’t been acknowledged. 

It only took three hours for her sign to warrant a response. Another two security officers in addition to the one still seated at the desk unlocked the door after gesturing for people to stand back. One guard carried a case of bottled water, which he distributed to the protesters. The other came right up to her. 

“What is the meaning of this sign?” he asked. 

“I’m not going to say what it means out here and I don’t think your boss wants me to either.” 

“Fine. Come with me.” 

She had to admit she was nervous when the man led her around a corner, but he quickly turned to a side panel of Stark Tower. Placing his palm on the glass, a number pad appeared and he typed a quick series of digits in to the system. What had appeared to be a normal piece of siding opened into a narrow passageway. It lacked the sleek design that the rest of the interior of Stark Tower featured. Instead, it was industrial, efficient, and bland. The man continued on, leading her through another door and up a few flight of stairs. They went through one more door before they had returned to the well known interior decorating of the tower and made for the elevator. 

“All this to bypass the lobby?” MJ asked. 

“Yes.” The man gave no further explanation.

She was led to a meeting room on one of the uppermost floors and told to wait. She didn’t have much else to do in the meantime, so she peered out through the windows to look out on the city. 

For the most part, it was still the familiar New York City skyline, but even from this distance, you could tell something was wrong. There was still numerous fires burning, some small and some apparently the result of crashed helicopters. There was still traffic, but cars drove in a weaving pattern and over sidewalks. Too many cars weren’t moving at all. 

She was taken from her reverie by the subtle sound of the door whooshing open. A heavy set man walked in, but when he spoke, she recognized his voice from the phone call. 

“You’re Happy?” She asked. The man was not what she had pictured in her head. 

“Yes. And you’re the girl who called me the other day.” He paused. “I thought I was clear that there was nothing we could do.”

“I wasn’t satisfied with that answer.” She answered. Still, she wasn’t sure what she had come here expecting. It wasn’t as if Happy had been wrong by saying there was a lot to do. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a while.

“You also said you were one of Peter’s friends. Why threaten to expose his identity?”

“I needed to get someone’s attention.”

Happy sighed. “Look, we appreciate that you and your friend are trying to help some kids, but there are only so many resources at our disposal. We’re prioritizing getting medical and defense systems back online. We can give you some MREs, but there’s nothing more that we can do.”

“That’s not good enough. You have all these empty rooms and rows of computers servers. You could-“

The door opened with its quiet whoosh once more. MJ recognized the woman who entered at once. 

Pepper took a seat at the end of the table. “Happy,” she said, “I can take over from here.” 

“But-“ Happy began to protest. 

“I need you to go check on our other project.”

Pepper waited until Happy left the room, then formally introduced herself to MJ. She continued, “I think some of your ideas to restore order to the city are great. And I admire what you’ve done for the children under your care. You’ll have to excuse Happy. There’s a lot going on and Stark Industries lost many of its key people. But you’re right. We need to do more. In fact, I’d like to ask you to do more.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“You can help manage the resources at Stark’s disposal. You know what people out there need. I’ll still manage all the tier one operations that Stark Industries is already working on, but I’d like you to take over managing the rest and I’d like your friend to oversee the creation of digital infrastructure response to the dusting.”

“We’re just kids.”

“I know. And this won’t be easy. But you’ve both been cleared by security from when Peter first mentioned you and we need all the help we can get. You two would both be living in the tower, of course.” 

“What about the kids we’re watching?” 

“For now, they can stay with you, but I imagine setting up a place for all abandoned children will be one of your first priorities.” 

“Ok.” MJ took a deep breath. She wanted to be doing something, but she couldn’t help but worry that something of this magnitude was beyond her abilities. 

“Perfect. I’ll let you send word to Ned and then I’ll have Happy give you an overview of what you have to work with.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you're reading this work along with the other three fics that go with it, I'd love to hear what you think about splitting up the story like this. Leave a comment!
> 
> If you're not reading this work along with the other three, guess what? Haha, I'd still love a comment. 
> 
> And remember, you can't have a friendly neighborhood comment section without comments. ;)


	4. The Guy in the Chair, The Girl in Charge

To say that he hadn’t imagined sitting behind a wall of computers in Stark Tower would be a lie. Ned had just never imagined it would happen like this. He’d been given a badge, a room, lots of computers, and a pretty awesome chair. 

He wasn’t exactly sure why he was the one overseeing what remained of Stark’s programmers and web design staff. MJ had explained hurriedly that Pepper had asked her, and by extension Ned, to oversee Stark Industries’s response to The Dusting (which was what the news had started calling it). Ned didn’t like the name for it. It sounded too commonplace, a chore to clean off windowsills. 

He was good at computers, but he was still only in high school. In his ten minute orientation with Pepper, she had told him not to try and handle every detail, but to keep everyone focused and assign tasks as he saw fit. If he had questions, Pepper had told him to talk to MJ about what goals his division should be pursuing. Then Pepper had left, clearly in a rush to get back to whatever she had been doing.

Now, only one week into this mess, Stark Industries had launched a census site that attempted to compile who was still around and to reunite people with those they had lost. That afternoon’s project was to set up a way for people to submit information about the event and possible solutions on the site that had been developed as a central communication platform for news related to The Dusting and relief efforts. As it was, literally thousands of messages came through each day with people claiming to know why this had happened and how to fix it. And from what it seemed, no one really knew what was going on. So, the programmers were working on developing an algorithm to sort through all the messages so only the most promising non-crazy could get through. Progress was slow going on that front. There was still all of the routine logistical and cybersecurity that kept the team busy. 

Speaking of busy, he hadn’t seen MJ since breakfast that morning. 

~~~~~~~~~

“Tell the ambassador from Paraguay to hold, please.” MJ called over her shoulder to the woman who was coordinating her meetings. 

That’s right. She had a secretary now. To say the first week had been a whirlwind of adjustment was an understatement. New room, new wardrobe, new responsibilities. New world, really. 

It took her a couple days of not sleeping to understand just how much she needed to delegate. Someone whose name she couldn’t even remember right now was overseeing her initial projects, setting up interim public services across the world. A team of political hacks and lawyers were drafting some international agreements that might quell the chaos while everyone figured things out. There were too many people who wanted to use this instability to their advantage. 

When she had first agreed to help, she had assumed that all of this high level coordination would be what Pepper was doing, but she only saw Pepper for a few minutes each day, to check in and get advice on only the most pressing issues. 

And that was why she was here, in a video conference call with the acting President explaining why Stark Industries would not be assisting with any individual nation’s security forces. There were always a lot of demands whenever she met with people used to power. But the one question everyone kept wanting an answer for was: “Where are the Avengers?”

Pepper had said she’d been in contact with some of them, but that for now that had to be classified information. Tony Stark and Peter were still missing. 

After countless meetings, the day was winding to a close. Well, kind of. As the sun set over New York, it rose somewhere else and then those people started calling her. Still, it was time for her to take a break, at least. She took the elevator up to Pepper’s floor for their end of the day meeting. 

“What do you mean that your scientist is already busy looking for a different person lost in space? This is an all hands on deck situation. You’re SHIELD! Shouldn’t you be helping out with this?” Pepper voice sounded shrill as she spoke into her phone.

MJ cleared her throat to announce her presence in the room. 

“Look, I have to go, but we will be continuing this conversation and I hope you all will come to your senses about where you’re needed.” Pepper ended the call and turned her attention to MJ. “Sorry about that. How was today?”

“The President wants Stark Industries helping with national security stuff. He’s threatening eminent domain and emergency powers.”

“That’s ridiculous. I’ll have a word with him later tonight.”

“Paraguay wants us to oversee their emergency elections. And yeah, I’ve tried explaining that they should ask the UN, but they seem insistent. For good news, the relief efforts are unfolding as planned and they’re being well-received.”

“Good. Anything else?”

“Everyone keeps asking me about the Avengers. Why can’t we tell them anything?”

“The Avengers- the ones that survived- have a plan of their own. And in order to make it work, let’s just say they’re… not in contact. I was just talking to a group of people who might have been our only other way of reaching them where they are right now, but apparently they destroyed the alien artifact that would have made that possible before The Dusting.”

MJ understood. “So we can’t tell anyone about the Avengers because if people find out they’re not here right now, it would cause a panic.”

“Exactly.”

“What about Peter and Tony?”

“As near as I can tell, they were both on board that spaceship before The Dusting. Happy is coordinating a team that’s working on tracking it now.”

“So what do we do now?”

Pepper though for a moment, then said, “We do our best with what we’ve got: the Earth. We’re not superheroes, you know.”

They laughed, but it was the kind of laughter that didn’t really make you smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! I am so so sorry that there's been such a long wait for this chapter. Work has been crazy. Updates may be slower, but I have not abandoned this story. In the meantime, know that I love reading comments (and they often motivate me to sit down and write). 
> 
> We're nearing the end of the first arc, so expect these stories to start meeting up soon. :D
> 
> Thank you for being awesome!


End file.
